USC OS/OT Student Blog

Time for Rest!

2012-05-08T18:27:56Z

Wow. What a year it has been! If these blogs have been any indication of what it’s like to be a student, then you know it’s a crazy, busy ride! We have now all finished the comprehensive exams, some of us are in the process of moving home or elsewhere, all are prepping for graduation, and some of us are even getting married (refer to Alix’s previous blog ) I have to admit it is a little strange not having days planned out to a tee with school and social stuff alike. But I’m going to try and take advantage of at least a couple days of rest before graduation. My calendar for tomorrow literally says “sleep”.

I’m house sitting all summer, so I have already moved my things into storage and am currently residing in Santa Monica. The house I’m at has a nice porch that gets some afternoon sun and is literally a 5 minute walk from the sand. It will be nice to take runs at the beach for at least a couple of months. Of couse it won’t stay quiet for too long with fieldwork on the agenda for Monday morning…but for now…rest. If there’s one thing we’ve all learned it is the importance of restful occupational engagement to refuel and keep our bodies healthy. So Happy Summer everyone! Hope you can find some restful days yourselves.

FUTURE OCCUPATIONS!!! MEET THE JETSONS

2012-05-07T22:34:42Z

I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about the occupations of the future. What kind of sports will we be playing? Where will be eat? Where will be eating? What will we be eating? And so on. This got me thinking about how all of our daily occupations will be impacted by a reduction in the NASA budget. The technological advances brought by the necessities of space exploration can have a valuable impact on the world of OT.

Almost Done…

2012-05-01T20:23:58Z

I can’t believe that the year is almost finished. It’s flown by so quickly! We’re only one little comprehensive exam away from a Master’s Degree.

On my to-do list:

1) Take comps
2) OT Prom (annual end-of-year soiree for students, faculty, and staff)
3) Get married (nbd)
4) GO TO HAWAII FOR HONEYMOON!
5) Fieldwork all summer
6) OTD

It’s been a pleasure guest-blogging on behalf of the Division for the past few months. Get excited for a brand new batch of Student Ambassadors to start blogging for the next year…

LA Times Festival of Books at USC

2012-04-23T21:17:10Z

This past weekend was the annual LA Times Festival of Books at USC and it was a lot of fun! It was great to see and meet so many avid readers and distinguished authors at the central of Los Angeles. Every morning, we started off the grand sunny day with the music played by the one and only, USC Trojan Marching Band. This starting was a great lift for the day full of amusement, reading, and delicious food from food trucks.

USC OT had a booth in the center of campus that marketed what OT was and how people can learn more about our program. We also occupied the health tent that focused on health promotion and education on OT. Inside the tent, we welcomed participants to learn more about the different services that OT had to offer. We had for areas of practice: Low vision, weight management, stress management, and sensory integration. People received quick assessments of low vision, weighed themselves and learned what their BMI scores mean, create their own stress-relief balls and heat packs, and play in an obstacle course (Kids only please). Everyone had a lot of fun and we got a lot of great feedback from the participants and staff.

What a wonderful weekend full of good books, great company, and occupational therapy!

Hiking for OT Month

2012-04-19T17:01:27Z

This month the Division has hosted and helped promote a variety of events to celebrate OT Month. As students, we have done a couple of our own as well. I put together a hike this past weekend in Runyon Canyon for anyone who wanted to join. Hiking is one of my favorite occupations and so I wanted to share with fellow hikers or non-hikers alike. We all met up Sunday morning for a couple of hours and took in the California sun. Since it had rained a few days earlier, the views were breathtaking. If you’ve never been to Runyon, I would highly recommend it for a leisurely-paced morning hike. There are 3 different trails you can chose from and the park allows dogs to hike the trail as well. Definitely a needed dose of the outdoors amid end-of-semester stress.

Happy OT Month everyone! And Happy Hiking

LA Times Book Festival

2012-04-17T18:17:55Z

Before I came to LA, I worked as a book editor in New York City. So my past and present lives will collide this weekend when the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books comes to USC. We’ll have a booth there to showcase USC OT faculty books and spread the word about OT, and we’re also hosting a health tent with free stress management, weight management, low-vision, and sensory integration stations (free stuff!). I’m looking forward to exploring the festival and possibly seeing some of my old publishing co-workers, this time from the completely different perspective of an industry outsider. If you’re in the Los Angeles, you can come and visit the USC OT booth:

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books:
April 21-22, 2012
Sat 10 AM – 6 PM
Sun 10 AM – 5 PM

WARRIOR DASH and CICLAVIA

2012-04-16T18:37:15Z

Man, this semester has passed rather quickly. It seems like it wasn’t so long ago that I was just entering the program and now I’ll be graduating soon. I’m in the process of trying to find a place to live in San Diego for my upcoming fieldwork experience at California Children’s Services. Aside from that, a few weeks ago my friends and I completed the Warrior Dash 5K obstacle course. Crawling through mud, swimming in extremely cold water, scaling walls, and jumping over fire was the perfect was to punctuate the weekend. Yesterday, my roommate and I attended the bike festival in downtown LA called “CICLAVIA”. The city closed streets throughout downtown and let cyclists from all over LA ride without the risk of getting hit my a absent-minded driver. Next up, I really should start studying for COMPS, I can’t believe it’s almost here.

Time Well Spent With Me Myself and I

2012-04-16T17:02:50Z

I can only please one person a day, and today, I choose me.

Sometimes you just need time for yourself without any distractions of deadlines, projects, and assignments. And this weekend, I did just that…nothing! All weekend, I had the “Don’t bother me unless I am needed for surgery” mentality. It was awesome!!!

I got to sleep in, catch up on TV shows, read the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy, and ate ice cream. It feels great because I am refreshed and reenergized for the week to come. I know there will be a lot to do this week, but I don’t let it stress me because I know it will come and go in a flash. Hopefully I make the most of the last few weeks of school. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am skipping along, while stopping to smell the roses. Gosh they smell good!

Living Green

2012-04-14T01:43:29Z

This week in my Lifestyle Redesign class we learned about the rejuvenating effects of nature on our health and well-being. We all know that it feels good to be in the outdoors, but it’s actually backed by science! Research has shown that hospital patients who are in a room with a window overlooking nature recover faster, have less pain, and complain less than patients with windows looking out into a wall or city scape. Other studies show that living in areas with more trees affects satisfaction levels, stress levels, and quality of life. Even things like having a nature scene as your desktop background can affect your day to day mood. Interacting with pets has the same effect as interacting with nature as well. So next time you take a coffee break from work or find yourself overstimulated by all of our various communication tools, walk outside for 10 minutes. Will do you lots more good than you might have thought!

April is OT Month!

2012-04-03T17:56:04Z

According to the American Occupational Therapy Association: “Each year in April, occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, and students in practice, education, research, and science host a month long celebration showcasing the importance of Occupational Therapy. It’s the time of year when everyone in the profession goes out of their way to tell the world about what we do.” At USC, we’re doing our part to promote the field for OT Month. Yesterday, we hosted an “OT Month Kickoff” event with entertainment from the dashing and talented ambassadors Chelsea Robinson and Chris Thompson. We also got free lunch (!) and custom-made OT buttons (also designed by the shockingly talented ambassadors). D’Andre (Dee) Holland emceed the event, which was incredible. Thanks, Dee! We hope that everybody remembers to represent occupational therapy this month by taking a few minutes to tell a friend (or a stranger) what you love most about the profession.

The Hunger Games From An Occupational Therapy Student’s Perspective

2012-03-29T17:12:31Z

After completely obsessing over the book series The Hunger Games, I finally got to see the film last weekend. Talk about occupational deprivation, if the citizens of the capitol have no better way to occupy their time than to watch a reality TV show of teens brutally killing each other then I think they are in need of some serious occupational therapy. I know that the games are a way to repress the districts and showcase the undying power of the capitol annually, but if the capitol just provided its districts with healthy, meaningful occupations and decent conditions to live in then there would be less cause for the districts to revolt and no need for such barbaric circumstances… Sure, call me biased because I am a student of occupational therapy and would make sure everyone had healthy occupations if I could, but I couldn’t help thinking “what if?”

There are many instances of relevance to occupational therapy in The Hunger Games. When Katniss becomes a victor of the games, she no longer needs to hunt in the woods because she is given plenty of food for the rest of her life, but she continues to break the law and hunt because hunting is meaningful to her and it defines who she is as much as being an occupational therapy student helps define who I am. In addition, although the capitol suppresses the districts of almost all meaningful occupations, even they seem to realize the importance of occupation and expect all the victors to take up a new occupation before their victory tour since they no longer need to work for a living. Peeta takes up painting, which becomes meaningful for him as a way to channel his anger and to manage his undiagnosed yet inevitably present post-traumatic stress disorder. The people of the capitol do not seem to have many occupations aside from altering their physical appearances and drooling over the victors of The Hunger Games. It seems odd that they are not the ones on a reality TV show since their lives are so unrealistic and strange. Unfortunately, the people of the capitol are not too unlike people of our society in their obsession with reality TV stars.

Is the book The Hunger Games a social commentary on how obsessed society has become with the voyeurism of reality TV shows? Millions of Americans are glued to their TVs during reality shows such as Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Jersey Shore, Sister Wives, Teen Mom, The Bachelor, and many more. I guess the term “reality” is a bit misleading because most of these shows are dramatic exaggerations of daily life that give unrealistic expectations of how reality should be. So if these “reality” shows actually do affect our perceptions of reality, how are they affecting our daily occupations?

OTD Admitted Student Meeting

2012-03-21T23:00:19Z

This afternoon I finally got to see all of my fellow OTD classmates in the same room at the same time. The Division held a meeting to tell all of the admitted OT students about what to expect from the program (which starts in the fall), how to register for classes, and how to find a residency site. It was fun to see who I would be spending the next year and change with and to learn more about the amazing projects that OTD students have completed in the past. While I already know that I’ll be working in Lifestyle Redesign with the Faculty Practice here at USC, I’m not 100% sure yet what I will be doing as a project. I’m hoping that it will have something to do with bolstering OT’s presence in oncology and/or integrative medicine. Either way, it’s definitely starting to seem more real and imminent now that we’ve had our first official meeting. If you’re new to USC OT and want to learn more about the OTD program, you can find it here: http://ot.usc.edu/academics/otd

USC OT Ranked #1

2012-03-13T22:53:34Z

US News and World Report rankings of the best graduate school programs in the nation just announced University of Southern California’s Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy ranking #1!

I am so proud to be part of the Trojan family and to receive the greatest education throughout the nation. When you sit in the lectures offered by renowned professors in the field, you can understand why USC OT was ranked number one. USC is always in the cutting edge of research and evidence-based practice. When I graduate this May, I feel confident that my education will follow me throughout my years of practice. I understand that time will establish my clinical expertise, but I know that the foundation that I have set at USC will enhance my skills into fruition.

Not only will I have a great education, but I will also have wonderful colleagues who I spent 2 remarkable years with. This kind of networking and fellowship is something that money can’t buy. When I go out into the “real world” and start practicing, I know that I am not alone. I have over a hundred other fellow practitioners who I can bounce ideas off of and support each other’s growth.

FIGHT ON, USC, FIGHT ON!

Spring Break Plans

2012-03-05T18:55:28Z

It’s already the middle of the semester and I am anxious for the week of spring break that I have been anticipating since the beginning of the year. I have booked myself busy every day of the week. Friday, I will be having dinner with some of my classmates in order to catch up outside of an academic setting. That weekend, I will be going to Las Vegas for some fun and buffets. My friends and I recently learned the game of Pai Gow, so I may very well test out my skills at a casino in between sightseeing, shopping, and eating. The first couple of weekdays when I get back, I will be working in the office. Just because I am on vacation, doesn’t mean the work doesn’t start piling up. The next weekend, I will be attending an anime convention where I will be tabling and selling my art, so I will be scrambling to get as much work done before then. The convention is in San Diego during the whole weekend, so I am excited for the hotel and fun adventures that will come about.

Wow, somehow I will throw in sleep and naps here or there. =)

March…

2012-03-01T19:58:20Z

...is awesome. Since it is the first of the month and school is not providing me with blog material, I thought it would be good to discuss why March is such a great month! First, our spring break is in March (and in California that means beach days ). Second, for us sports fanatics, March is both the time for March Madness and spring training. Third, there are lots of holidays in March, the most popular being St. Patty’s Day when we all get to wear green, my favorite color. And to top it all off, March is officially the first month of spring. I love spring, mostly for the flowers. East-coasters get to experience the seasons for real, but here in Cali we still get to see all of the winter bulbs finally bloom. Walking the neighborhood becomes a colorful display…sigh…So Happy March Everyone!